Schools Must Become Havens of SAFETY AND CREATIVITY - Don Hanley’s blog #25

While watching the Senate hearings on social media, I couldn't help but notice that many senators blamed the innovative creators of social media platforms. It made me realize (once again) that we need to bring change to our education system. We should encourage pre-teens and teens to take more responsibility and Choose Not to indulge in drugs. Schools should be centers of critical thinking, nurturing, creative imagination, personal connecting, and, most importantly, caring. I would love to see this:

All children will be able to say, “I know where I can find people who care about me. It’s at our school. Whenever I visit a school, I hear staff members and teachers say, “Hi, Don, how are you today?” And I call back, “Hi, George, or Mary, Sam, or Gladys, or . . . and on and on.”

And more and more children will say: "Mom and Dad both work, and sometimes I go to daycare after school or to an empty house, and that’s okay because both need to be able to develop their creative abilities, just like me. So, my school allows me to learn and get to know myself and other kids, adults, and high schoolers. It is a fun place to be, and the teachers help us to learn how to discover stuff. My parents thought that there was too much age segregation in our schools and society, so they wanted to change that – starting with our schools. No more kindergarten, elementary, middle school, and then high school. Now, I go to ONE school, and it is K-12."

"My mom and dad have told me that when they were in school, they were required to memorize a lot of stuff, then they were tested to see how much they memorized. Now we know that our computers can memorize much better than we can, so we spend time thinking creatively and imagining how we can make our world a better place. One of my sisters is on the autism spectrum and has difficulty remembering things, which makes it tough for her to pass any test. My mom says I am 'gifted' or 'wired differently' because I can memorize things easily and create new ideas very well. But this doesn't make me better than my sister. It just means we learn differently. Sometimes, I wish I could sing like my sister.”

We belong to two different self-understanding groups or 'cohorts.' She has smart kids in her group, while I have two kids who are on the autism spectrum in my cohort. However, we both love and cherish everyone in our respective groups. One of our teachers said that the main problems the school has is keeping students home when they are sick."

Let me know what you think about these ideas - Please. And everybody, keep . . . 

Nurturing your hearts, but Do Not eat the menus.